CONMED Co. (NYSE:CNMD) Short Interest Up 9.4% in January

CONMED Co. (NYSE:CNMD) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,550,000 shares, a growth of 9.4% from the January 15th total of 2,330,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 431,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of CONMED by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $235,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of CONMED by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 3,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of CONMED by 4.1% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 7,056 shares of the company’s stock worth $512,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CONMED by 5.0% during the third quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $419,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epiq Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of CONMED by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Epiq Partners LLC now owns 13,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $952,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CNMD. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of CONMED from $74.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of CONMED from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CONMED from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CONMED from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of CONMED from $97.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CONMED presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.20.

CONMED Price Performance

CNMD traded down $1.32 on Friday, reaching $63.05. The company had a trading volume of 467,955 shares, compared to its average volume of 463,932. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.93. The company has a market cap of $1.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 2.27. CONMED has a 52-week low of $61.05 and a 52-week high of $86.96.

CONMED (NYSE:CNMD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.14. CONMED had a net margin of 10.13% and a return on equity of 14.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that CONMED will post 4.35 EPS for the current year.

CONMED Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 20th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 20th. CONMED’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.87%.

CONMED Company Profile

CONMED Corporation, a medical technology company, develops, manufactures, and sells surgical devices and related equipment for surgical procedures worldwide. The company offers orthopedic surgery products, including BioBrace, TruShot with Y-Knot All-In-One Soft Tissue Fixation System, Y-knot All-Suture Anchors, and Agro Knotless Suture Anchors, which provide clinical solutions to orthopedic surgeons for the augmentation and repair of soft tissue injuries, as well as provides supporting products that enable surgeons to perform minimally invasive sports medicine surgeries.